It’s getting on towards Christmas. And one of my best Christmas memories is from a quarter-century before, coming down from Colorado to visit my grandparents for the holidays. One of those Christmas gifts was a copy of Eidos’ The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. I had heard of the preceding game, Blood Omen: The Legacy of Kain, but hadn’t had a chance to play it, so I was going into the story blind. And a great story it was, too. It made me hungry for the sequel, for the whole setting of Nosgoth and the adventures which awaited. Now, twenty-five years later, Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 have been remastered by Aspyr in a combo package, and I find myself feeling a little drained for all the wrong reasons.
For those who haven’t played, Soul Reaver puts you in the role of Raziel, a vampire noble in service to his undying Emperor, Kain (the main character from Blood Omen). After revealing his unexpected evolution by sprouting wings, without his lord and master going first, Raziel is mutilated and executed by being thrown into the Lake of the Dead. But all it did was piss Raziel off. Still undead, but not exactly a vampire any longer, either. Given a mandate to restore the balance to the crumbling world of Nosgoth by destroying Kain, Raziel traverses his old haunts and kills a lot of vampires on his way to the final showdown with his old boss. It’s a boss fight which ended on possibly one of the best executed and howl-inducing cliffhangers in gaming history. Soul Reaver 2 picks up right where the first game left off, with Raziel transported to the past as he continues to pursue Kain and becomes embroiled in a struggle between the destiny that will save Nosgoth and his own free will having been broken away from Kain’s control.
“Shut up, Kain.”
Both Soul Reaver games being remastered should, notionally, provide a richer and more diverse graphic experience. It should should look a lot better than it did twenty-five years ago while still retaining the original visual style. And it does look improved (you can even flip back and forth between the “HD” and “original” graphics to compare the two). The problem is that it doesn’t look like it was improved enough. A lot of detail went into the character models and textures, but elements of the underlying engine don’t seem to have been corrected. This is most apparent in Soul Reaver, with a large number of collision issues, geometry “pop-in,” and texture cracking at various points throughout the environments. A remaster shouldn’t just be slapping new textures and higher poly counts on the meshes just to call it a day. I get that there are probably a good number of technical limitations that might have presented themselves, but it feels like Aspyr didn’t even try. Even the UI (particularly the maps) could have used some reworking, and not getting any improvement feels like a terribly missed opportunity. That said, both Soul Reaver games still retain the soaring pseudo-Gothic architecture and its twisted counterparts while in the “spirit realm” which made them so visually attractive. Various particle effects convey everything from blood and guts to smoke and fire in that slightly blocky yet period accurate method from the turn of the Millennium. They still feel the same, visually speaking, which is both blessing and curse at the same time.
The audio in the Soul Reaver games certainly sounds just as clean and engaging as it did on their original release. The music from Kurt Harland (of Information Society fame) and Jim Hedges is still pretty darned good, though they do get a bit repetitive at times and the shifts from one piece to another as Raziel traverses the maps are not as smooth as they could have been. It’s another area that feels like Aspyr didn’t quite put in the work to fully remaster the content. The voice cast is still just as good as it was before. Michael Bell gives Raziel the right blend of aristocratic hauteur and primal rage. The late Tony Jay still sounds appropriately ominous as the Elder God who brings Raziel back from oblivion, while Simon Templeman chews the digital scenery with gusto as Kain. Anna Gunn (in an early voice role before Breaking Bad) shows both anger and despair as the spectre Ariel, the ghostly guide Raziel needs to complete his mission of revenge. This was probably one area that didn’t need any serious work, and it may be a saving grace in the project.
From a gameplay standpoint, it’s genuinely a weird experience for me coming back to the Soul Reaver games. Playing them now after twenty-five years of other games, you see the flaws and the greatness a lot more clearly. What was originally an action adventure game in the vein of Tomb Raider and Gex now seems to play more like some sort of ur-Soulsborne, a video game artifact of antique provenance that paradoxically takes its mechanics from later games. More importantly, though, the dramatic shift in mechanics and style between Soul Reaver and Soul Reaver 2 feels far more jarring. From ubiquitous sliding block puzzles to a more environmentally and narratively focused set of mechanics (which would doubtlessly go on to influence games like God of War), it’s hard not to feel a sense of whiplash.
Worse, it’s also hard not to feel the absence of Aspyr’s efforts once more, a failure to incorporate simple quality-of-life improvements like a target lock system for Soul Reaver 2‘s seemingly chaotic combat systems being the most obvious pain point. Even the save game system shift between the two games feels a lot more jarring now that they’re side by side. The gameplay elements that worked well, such as traversing different areas and utilizing the dichotomy between the physical and spirit realms help solve puzzles, still work. Perversely, though, the quasi-open world gameplay style feels a lot more restrictive and less intuitive than a modern game along the lines of The Witcher III or Elden Ring. It almost makes you wonder if your memories of playing the original releases can be trusted.
“Oh not you too, Moebius!”
Probably the one truly redeeming feature of the remaster package comes in the form of the “Bonus Materials” section. In it, you’ll find a collection of concept art and fan art for both Soul Reaver games, as well as copies of the original voice over scripts, videos and outtakes from the recording sessions, and even levels which were cut from the first Soul Reaver, a consequence of the dispute between Crystal Dynamics and Silicon Knights prior to release. It might not be absolutely everything that a fan would ever want, but it’s quite a treasure trove all the same.
When you stack the Soul Reaver remasters against similar efforts such as Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, there’s a strong sense that they could have been so much better. The effort made by Aspyr is appreciated, but it cannot be unequivocally commended. Hopefully, should Aspyr decide to take the plunge and remaster The Legacy of Kain: Defiance, they’ll take the time to look back at the past and fix the mistakes which might potentially turn contemporary audiences away from one of the most beloved series in gaming history. In this, they should be taking the lessons of the Soul Reaver games to heart: the past informs the present, and sometimes you should make a better choice than what happened the first time around.
Axel reviewed The Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered on a PlayStation 5 with a review code.
